The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Page 18 The Educational Screen COMMITTEE ON FIELD EXPERIENCES FINANCING has always been one of the problems in schools making use of long distance field trips. Recognized as valuable to give young people a broad understanding of the America they live in, these trips are taken by comparatively few schools largely because financial considerations stand in the way. Here in a letter written from one school principal in a small town in Illinois to another, a letter of advice never intended for publication, we have an example of the ingenuity which can enable a school to raise the necessary funds. Now that war is upon us, the schools will undoubted- ly have to do their share in raising funds for the Red Cross and for other defense activities. The suggestions contained in this letter will be helpful for that purpose as well. The collection of waste paper, mentioned in the letter, will be recognized as a conservation activity requested by governmental agencies. Add to this sug- gestion the collection of waste metal of various kinds, and the discussion of the use of that metal or the paper in class, and we again have a pattern of education, through socially useful work, emerging. W.W.W. Media Township Community High Scfeoof Media, Illinois James B. J.\ckson, Principal "Dear Alvin:" I have been rather tardy getting around to sending you the information you asked for over the phone the other day. I only hope that I am not too late for it to be of some use to you. If I understood you, the thing you wanted was information concerning the way in which we raised money for the Senior trip. First of all, I might tell you that the Senior Class pays out of its funds the actual cost of transportation, bridge tolls, etc., and the cost of any conducted tours. This usually amounts to two hundred fifty or three hundred dollars ($250 or $300) altogether. Several plans have been used here and in this vicin- ity for raising funds, and I am including not only the plans that we have used, but also some which I am contemplating and some which I know have been used successfully in neighboring schools. Our most prof- itable scheme so far has been our Senior Corn Wagon. This year we sent out the double postal cards to a mailing list of some two hundred fifty patrons of the school. The mailing list was made up from persons who had shown interest in the Senior trip in years be- fore, and of course included the parents of farm chil- dren in school. The card carried a message from the president of the Senior Class stating the purpose of the trip and asking if the person addressed would like to contribute corn to our fund. The reply card, of course, provided space to indicate the amount of corn to be given. We sent these cards out on Thursday of last week, and to date, we have received contributions of over one hundred bushels of corn, so you can see it works. Another plan that we are contemplating is to solicit ungleaned fields that have been picked by corn-pickers, and then during Christmas vacation, (which is two WILLIAM W. WATTENBERG Chairman, Chicago Teachers College weeks here) both boys and girls from the Senior Class will glean and turn that corn into the fund. We have also served lunches at farm sales. We made about thirty-five dollars ($35.00) on one sale, and none of the food was donated. Then, of course, we have a Sen- ior play and usually one dance each month which is open to the public. There are several other ideas that I think are pretty good. One is the bakery sale which would be con- ducted somewhat similar to the Corn Wagon idea. The patrons of the school would be solicited by a postal card for their baked goods. The students would collect it, and on an advertised date would do the selling. One of my neighboring Superintendents tells me that he runs a Senior Junk Wagon instead of a Corn Wagon. Of course, he takes up "rags, bottles, and old iron" besides anything else of slight value which the people want to get rid of. One project that can be worked out at school and which we are doing now is the baling of all waste paper and saving old magazines and news- papers from the school library. This doesn't net very much, but it helps. I thought of a good idea the other day which I be- lieve would work in a community which was already sold on the idea of contributions. The plan was to print up a number of gilt-edged securities in as at- tractive a style as possible, and offer them in denom- inations of one dollar, two dollars, five dollars, or ten dollars. These would simply be certificates to the effect that the holder thereof had donated a certain sum of money for financing the Senior trip of such and such a year. One idea that I had hoped to work out this year, but didn't, was a hobby class during the summer com- posed of the youngsters who would be Seniors this year, and having those people work on various projects which would be saleable. Then at the various activities here, such as ball games, carnivals, dances, etc., display this material and offer it for sale. I have thought too of some type of bazaar or white elephant sale to be held at school, either in the fall or early in the spring, so that it could be held outdoors. I have a few other ideas not very well developed yet, but I think this is enough to give you some indication of what we are doing here. One of the most important things, I think, to bear in mind in any community is that the public must be back of the project whole-heartedly, or any money- making scheme is bound to fail, and unless that spirit of community cooperation is already established, a good deal of local publicity is needed before a campaign of the above kind can be launched. Of course you know this without my telling you. If you run into any ideas for raising funds that sound like they would work, I would appreciate your passing them along to me. „. Smcerely, "JJm."